The supplementary pensions of former private sector employees will not be revalued this year, due to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19, the Agirc-Arrco pension scheme announced Thursday.
The rule is hard, but it is the rule: the trade unions and employers' organizations which manage the pension fund for private sector employees have decided to apply to the letter the agreement they signed in 2019. Pensions paid by Agirc-Arrco to 13 million people are in fact supposed to follow each year on November 1 the rise in prices or wages, by aligning with the less favorable.
"The evolution of wages being negative this year, due to the exceptional economic context linked to the health crisis" and pensions cannot "in any case decrease in absolute value", the social partners have chosen to "maintain the level of pensions "for one year," Agirc-Arrco explains in a press release on Thursday.
Harder choices ahead?
More difficult choices could follow.
The "point purchase value" of retirement, in principle indexed on January 1 to the average salary, has thus not been fixed.
"The social partners wished to postpone its fixing", knowing that a cheaper point for contributors generates more rights at the end of their career for future retirees and therefore more expenses.
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However, the accounts of the regime are in a "degraded situation", with a heavy loss expected this year, which calls into question its constant objective of having 6 months of reserves within 15 years.
"The latest projections made no longer make it possible to meet the conditions" to achieve this, indicates Agirc-Arrco, which "seized the social partners" on this point.